The pilot and the third passenger killed in Sunday’s tragic Virginia plane crash that left all four aboard dead have been identified.
Evadnie Smith — the live-in nanny for real estate agent Adina Azarian, 49, and her 2-year-old daughter, Aria Azarian — died alongside the duo and pilot Jeff Hefner, according to reports.
Originally from Jamaica, Smith helped take care of little Aria at her mother’s East Hamptons home, according to the US Sun.
Friends of Azarian told the US Sun that she was affectionately called “Nanny V” and described her as a “remarkable woman with a beautiful soul” who shared a special bond with the single mom and her daughter.
Azarian’s parents, successful business people and Republican donors John and Barbara Rumpel, confirmed the deaths of their daughter and granddaughter Sunday night.
On Monday, John Rumpel identified the pilot of the doomed Cessna as Hefner in an interview with the Washington Post.
Hefner was survived by a wife and three kids, Florida attorney Dan Newlin told the newspaper.
Newlin said Hefner had flown for him and called him a “highly accomplished and skilled aviator.”
Childhood pals of Azarian said she decided to have a family on her own and struggled for years to conceive before she was blessed with her “miracle baby.”
“She went through everything as a single woman to have a baby, and I can’t say since Aria’s been born, I don’t think I’ve seen her twice without her,” former classmate Tara Brivic-Looper, 47, told The Post. “It was just the two of them every single day. That was what she always wanted.”
Tragically, Azarian’s death is not the first time the Rumpels have lost a child, John Rumpel told CBS News Monday.
“I never met a sweeter person than Adina. This is the second daughter I have lost, and she was the most wonderful human being I have ever met,” John Rumpel said, adding that they adopted her.
Their other daughter, Victoria, died as a teenager in a scuba diving accident in 1994, the grieving parents told the station.
On Sunday, Barbara Rumpel shared photos of Azarian and little Aria on Facebook, along with a heart-wrenching statement.
“My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter,” she wrote.
The two women and baby girl were flying from Tennessee to Long Island on a private Cessna owned by the Rumpels when the aircraft veered off its path and entered restricted airspace over Washington, DC.
The Department of Defense deployed six F-16 fighter jets out of Joint Base Andrews to chase after the plane, whose pilot was not responding to air traffic controllers.
The jets flew at supersonic speeds to race to the wayward plane, causing a sonic boom that rattled the greater DC area and frightened residents across the region.
The military jets reported seeing the pilot “slumped over” in his seat, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Monday.
Aviation experts believe the Cessna may have lost pressurization, causing the pilot and everyone on board to lose consciousness due to a lack of oxygen, while the plane likely continued flying on autopilot.
They think it eventually ran out of fuel and nosedived into a mountainous and heavily wooded area in Virginia around 3:30 p.m.
The aircraft dropped more than 30,000 feet per minute before it crashed in a remote area near the Blue Ridge Parkway around Raphine, leaving a crater from the impact and a few pieces of debris behind.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the incident, with officials noting they would have a preliminary report ready within three weeks.
